NSG waiver neither clean nor unconditional: Left

NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Saturday attacked the government for "surrendering" the country's sovereignty by virtually accepting the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and adverse conditionalities in the NSG waiver, which, they said, was neither clean nor unconditional.

"Initially it appears that India has neither got a clean nor an unconditional waiver because the Australian Foreign Minister announcing the NSG decision expressed happiness that the waiver met the international non-proliferation architecture," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

Observing that there was a strong feeling that the waiver met the NPT guidelines, he said this implies that "India has de-facto accepted the NPT. If this is the case, it is yet another surrender."

"Initially it looks as if India has accepted in perpetuity not to conduct any nuclear test and in perpetuity accepted the NPT," Yechury said.

He said none of the nine assurances given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have been met and demanded immediate convening of the Parliament session to debate the fate of these assurances.

In a statement, the CPI attacked the Prime Minister for dubbing the NSG waiver as historic, saying it was a "black day" and there was "a deliberate attempt to hide the adverse amendments incorporated in the final draft of the NSG waiver".

The NSG has accepted External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement "as a commitment by India to surrender its right for future R&D in nuclear technology, including the right to have strategic programmes," it said.